When Revival Clothing was born over ten years ago, we came up with the idea of including the historical sources that we referenced in creating our patterns. The challenge was that we had collected a substantial library of books, chock full of primary images of medieval clothing, we did not have the means to obtain the rights to all those images so that we could use them freely on our webpage. So, Nicole drew them all, combined with line drawings inspired by mechanical drawing, so that our customers would have a clear image of the lines of the style.

After a few years, customers started asking us for access to our written and pictorial research. As a response, Nicole created an album that comprised all our historical research, which customers could peruse while shopping with us in person. Eventually, we added drawings that explained how the layers of clothing for each period worked together. Customers fell in love with this flip-book, and repeatedly asked how they could get a copy for themselves. Sadly, we had to say ‘you can’t’.

But now you can! In conjunction with our friends at Freelance Academy Press, we are proud to present The Book of Historic Fashion – A Newcomer’s Guide to Medieval Clothing (1300 – 1450).  Drawing from that original flip-book, the art has been refined and expanded beyond the items in our product line, to give an overview of the major fashions from the period, combined with short explanatory essays on the garments, how they evolved and how they go together. Greg Mele, who created a segment in our newsletter called “From the Pen of History”, wherein he wrote many articles on medieval clothing and culture, has selected a series of those articles and substantially edited and expanded them for inclusion in the book, as well as adding a short appendix on fabric and color.